President-elect Joe Biden has selected retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the former commander of US Central Command, to be his secretary of defense, CNN reports.

“Elizabeth Warren is not going to be treasury secretary. Bernie Sanders seems unlikely to lead the Labor Department. And progressives have so far failed to persuade President-elect Joe Biden to put their favored candidates in top jobs for his administration,” NBC News reports.

“But they appear to have succeeded in making enough noise to keep out their biggest foes, at least for now.”

Politico: “Chris Coons was in the final two when it came to Joe Biden’s search for a secretary of State. But the president-elect had a simple message when he broke the news that the job would instead go to Tony Blinken.”

Said Biden: “I need you in the Senate.”

“The next president is telling that to lots of Democrats these days as he tries to staff his Cabinet. But in the Biden era, Coons may actually be the most critical individual Democrat on Capitol Hill — Biden truly needs his help to have any chance at accomplishment in a narrowly divided Congress.”

President-elect Joe Biden has selected Rochelle Walensky, the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Politico reports.

“President-elect Joe Biden has selected Xavier Becerra, a former congressman who is now the Democratic attorney general of California, as his nominee for secretary of health and human services, ending a politically delicate search that brought complaints from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about a lack of Latinos in the incoming cabinet,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Becerra became Mr. Biden’s clear choice only over the last few days, according to people familiar with the transition’s deliberations, and was a surprise. He has carved out a profile more on the issues of criminal justice, immigration and tax policy, and he was long thought to be a candidate for attorney general.”

“There’s talk within Bidenworld of the president-elect ditching the typical flourish of arriving in Washington on an Air Force plane, pulling in instead on the same Amtrak train he rode to and from Delaware for 30 years as a senator,” Axios reports.

“Pentagon officials said Saturday that leaders of the military’s intelligence services will begin meeting with members of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team Monday, ending what some current and former officials said was an impasse that undermined the transfer of control,” the Washington Post reports.

“Kamala Harris began her political career in 2003 with an audacious gambit, running against and unseating her former boss, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan, just a few years after he’d promoted her to be a top assistant,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Now that long-apparent ambition will be the source of inevitable speculation as Harris is about to become the vice president, the understudy, to a man who at 78 will be the oldest president in history.”

“President-elect Joe Biden, while eager to dispel any notion that he’ll be a lame duck, has insisted repeatedly that Harris need not wait for power. As a former vice president who believes in a robust role for the job, he has already begun sharing the stage and the decision-making with the 56-year-old California senator.”

A new Gallup poll finds that President-elect Joe Biden has a 55% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating.

The same poll gives President Donald Trump a 42% favorable rating and a 57% unfavorable rating.

Harry Enten: “The 2020 election was, like almost every election involving an incumbent, mostly about voters’ feelings toward said incumbent. Not enough attention, however, has been paid to the fact that the challenger was a fairly popular guy. He did not allow Trump to make this election a choice of the lesser of two evils.”

“Indeed, Biden is more popular than Trump has been at any point since he started running for president in June 2015.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has emerged as a key contender to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, CNN reports.

“The HHS secretary position has been a source of intrigue and confusion this week, with New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo being mentioned as contenders. Raimondo has said she’s no longer a candidate and Lujan Grisham’s status is now unclear.”

Politico: Biden expands search for HHS Secretary.

“President-elect Joe Biden is calling for swift confirmation of his top Cabinet choices once he’s sworn in next year – and a new study suggests he shouldn’t worry,” CBS News reports.

“The last four presidents announced a combined 56 Cabinet nominees during their transitions, most of them in December, and each president saw almost all those picks take office… In the last 28 years, the Senate has confirmed 95% of a president’s cabinet secretary nominations.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that he “absolutely” will accept the offer from President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his chief medical officer, telling NBC News that he said yes “right on the spot.”

“President-elect Joe Biden is adjusting the scope of his agenda to meet the challenges of governing with a narrowly divided Congress and the complications of legislating during a raging pandemic,” the AP reports.

“Rather than immediately pursue ambitious legislation to combat climate change, the incoming administration may try to wrap provisions into a coronavirus aid bill. Biden’s team is also considering smaller-scale changes to the Affordable Care Act while tabling the more contentious fight over creating a public option to compete with private insurers.”

Joe Biden told CNN it’s “of no personal consequence to me” if President Trump attends the inauguration, but he thinks it’s important to demonstrate the peaceful transfer of power and an “end of this chaos that he’s created.”